Charles Manson, Cult Leader and Orchestrator of the 1969 Murders is Dead at 83

‘60s cult leader Charles Manson convicted of influencing several murders in 169 dies aged 83 | He was serving life term at the California State Prison

1960s cult leader Charles Manson, who was serving nine consecutive life terms for masterminding nine murders in 1969, including that of actress Sharon Tate, died aged 83 at a Bakersfield Hospital on Sunday.

The California Department of Corrections confirmed his death in a statement which read, “Inmate Charles Manson, 83, died of natural causes at 8:13 p.m. on Sunday, November 19, 2017, at a Kern County hospital.”

Although Manson did not personally commit any of the murders, he influenced his young followers, who came to be known as the “Manson Family” – to carry out the gruesome killings of an eight-month-pregnant Sharon Tate and eight others. The murders were committed in July and August 1969 at four different locations.

Five murders were committed in the early morning hours of August 9, 1969, by members of Manson’s quasi-cult group, who first killed the pregnant Tate, mercilessly stabbing the 26-year-old actress sixteen times at her Benedict Canyon house in Los Angeles. Her filmmaker husband Roman Polanski, who she shared the house with, was away in Europe at the time.

Four friends of the couple: coffee heiress Abigail Folger, hairstylist Jay Sebring, Steven Parent, and Wojciech Frykowski were also murdered that night at Tate’s house, stabbed or shot to death.

On their way out, the animals wrote the word PIG in blood on Tate’s front door.

Sharon Tate

The very next night, Manson’s demented followers brutally stabbed grocery owner Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary LaBianca to death. Like the previous night, they used the victims’ blood to write “Healter Skelter” and “Death to Pigs” on the walls and the refrigerator door.

The misspelled term “Healter Skelter” was inspired by the Beatles song “Helter Skelter” and was supposed to be the name of the race war which Manson and his so-called family were trying to set in motion.

Manson’s trial lasted nearly a year, at the end of which he along with three of his cult members, Leslie Van Houten, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkel, were sentenced to death for the seven murders. Later, Charles “Tex” Watson, another Manson follower, was also convicted.

Subsequently, Manson was also found guilty of ordering the murders of stuntman Donald.

“Shorty” Shea who was stabbed and bludgeoned to death that August of 1969, and music teacher Gary Hinman, stabbed to death a month before, by members of the “Manson Family.”

Manson’s 1971 death sentence was commuted to nine consecutive life terms without parole in 1972, after the state of California abolished the death penalty. The others were also spared the death penalty.

While Susan Atkins died in prison in 2009 and is now rotting in hell, Leslie Van Houten, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkel continue to rot in prison.

The late Vincent Bugliosi, the Los Angeles prosecutor responsible for Manson’s conviction had said: “Manson was an evil, sophisticated con man with twisted and warped moral values.”

Speaking to CNN in 2015, Bugliosi said that Manson “was the dictatorial ruler of the [Manson] family, the king, the Maharaja. And the members of the family were slavishly obedient to him.”

This is how the nation reacted to the news of the twisted man’s death.